Editorial | The strength of survivors

In this photo from May 1988, Kentucky State Police inspect the church bus involved in the Carroll County crash that killed 27 people.

Just a few days after the 1988, fiery church bus crash in Carroll County, Ky., that killed 24 children and three adults and seriously injured many more, one youth hospitalized with severe burns sent this message through his mother to the public:

"Thanks to all the doctors, thanks to all the nurses, thanks to everyone who cares. Thanks for all the love and thanks for all the prayers."

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Those were the words of David Walliser, then 14, who was badly burned but survived what would become the nation's deadliest drunken driving accident - caused when an intoxicated driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 crashed head-on into the used school bus carrying 63 children and four adults back to Radcliff, Ky., after a day at Kings Island amusement park near Cincinnati.

Now, 25 years later, the same remarkable spirit of strength and resilience lives on in survivors, some of whom this week were featured in The Courier-Journal's series looking back at the impact of the terrible crash. Forty of those on board survived, most of them badly burned from the flash fire that erupted after the crash ruptured the bus gas tank.

Mr. Walliser, now 39, is among them, telling The Courier-Journal he has not forgotten the crash but is determined not to let it define his life.

"I knew there were other things I was meant to be," he said.

Their stories are powerful testimonials to the human spirit in overcoming the horrific impact of the crash even as survivors say they will never forget it or those who did not survive.

"Every day I live with the joy and guilt," crash survivor Carey Aurentz Cummins said, speaking at a memorial service Tuesday at North Hardin High School.

Ms. Cummins, now 39, was the only survivor from the front of the bus. She suffered severe burns, lost her right leg below the knee, and endured multiple surgeries and skin grafts. She and many others still bear the scars from injuries.

The crash would forever change the lives of survivors, who have lived with the memories of the horror and agony that erupted after Larry Mahoney smashed his pickup into the bus, causing it to burst into flames.

The padded vinyl seats ignited in seconds, turning the bus interior into an inferno. The crushed front door wouldn't open, leaving passengers to try to escape through smoke and flames down a narrow, center aisle to the only other exit, the rear door.

The crash would bring major changes in school bus safety. State and federal safety regulations now require school buses to have push-out emergency windows, a left side emergency door and a roof escape hatch in addition to the front and rear doors.

Seats and flooring must be of burn-resistant materials and buses now use diesel fuel rather than the more flammable gasoline.

The crash prompted Kentucky to enact stiffer penalties on drunken driving. And on Tuesday's 25th anniversary of the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended lowering the blood alcohol limit for for drunk driving from the current 0.08 percent to 0.05 percent, a move that bears serious consideration by state legislatures.

Some take comfort from what changed.

Ciaran Foren Madden, who at age 14 survived the crash that left her with burns over 75 percent of her body and years of painful surgeries and treatments, said she tries to keep in mind that school buses today are safer and drunken driving laws stricter.

"There was a lot of good that came out of that bus accident," she said.

Yet survivors and their families must live with the results of the one night that changed their lives, an event that through no fault of their own left them to navigate a new course through grief, trauma and pain.

"It's been a stuggle," said Woody Aurentz, the father of Ms. Cummins. "A struggle that shouldn't have happened."

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Editorial | The strength of survivors

Just a few days after the 1988, fiery church bus crash in Carroll County, Ky., that killed 24 children and three adults and seriously injured many more, one youth hospitalized with severe burns sent